Three-dimensional sheet materials which include a thin layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive protected from inadvertent contact, as well as methods and apparatus for manufacturing them, have been developed and are described in detail in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,758, issued Sept. 2, 1997 to Hamilton and McGuire, entitled "Composite Material Releasably Sealable to a Target Surface When Pressed Thereagainst and Method of Making", and U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,607, issued Feb. 16, 1999 to Hamilton and McGuire, entitled "Material Having A Substance Protected by Deformable Standoffs and Method of Making", and commonly-assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/745,339, filed Nov. 8, 1996 in the names of McGuire, Tweddell, and Hamilton, entitled "Three-Dimensional, Nesting-Resistant Sheet Materials and Method and Apparatus for Making Same", now U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,235, Ser. No. 08/745,340, filed Nov. 8, 1996 in the names of Hamilton and McGuire, entitled "Improved Storage Wrap Materials", all of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
While the processes and equipment for manufacturing such materials described in these applications/patents are suitable for manufacturing such materials on a comparatively small scale, the nature of the processes and equipment have been found to be rate-limiting by design. Said differently, the maximum speed at which such processes and equipment can be operated to produce such materials is limited by the size or weight of moving components, the rate at which heat can be applied to deformable substrate materials, the rate at which forces can be imparted to the substrate to deform it into the desired configuration, and/or the rate at which adhesive can be applied to the substrate and/or intermediate apparatus elements. The speed at which such processes and apparatus can be operated is a major factor in the economics of producing such materials on a commercial scale.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a process and apparatus suitable for forming such three-dimensional sheet materials and applying adhesive at high speed.